That fine gardens delighted Sully, is evident even from his own statement of his visit to the Duke d'Aumale's, at Anet, near Ivry, (where Henry and Sully fought in that famous battle), for he says,--"Joy animated the countenance of Madame d'Aumale the moment she perceived me. She gave me a most kind and friendly reception, took me by the hand, and led me through those fine galleries and beautiful gardens, which make Anet a most enchanting place." One may justly apply to Sully, what he himself applies to the Bishop of Evreaux: "A man for whom eloquence and great sentiments had powerful charms." I had designed some few years ago, to have published a Review of some of the superb Gardens in France, during the reign of Henry IV. and during the succeeding reigns, till the demise of Louis XV., embellished with plates of some of the costly and magnificent decorations of those times; with extracts from such of their eminent writers whose letters or works may have occasionally dwelt on gardens.--My motto, for want of a better, might have been these two lines from Rapin, _----France, in all her rural pomp appears With numerous gardens stored._ Perhaps I might have been so greedy and insolent, as to have presumed to have monopolized our Shakspeare's line,--"I love _France_ so well, that I will not part with a village of it; I will have it all mine." Isaac Walton gives the following lines from a translation of a German poet, which makes one equally fond of England: We saw so many woods, and princely bowers, Sweet fields, brave palaces, and stately towers, _So many gardens dress'd with curious care_, That Thames with royal Tiber may compare. [3] The Encyclopædia of Gardening has a rich page (35) devoted to Le Nôtre. The Nouveau Dict. Hist. thus records his genius and his grand and magnificent efforts:--"Ce grand homme fut choisi pour décorer les jardins du château de Vau-le-Vicomte. Il en fit un sejour enchanteur, par les ornamens nouveaux, pleins de magnificence, qu'il y prodigua. On vit alors, pour la premiere fois, des portiques, des berceaux, des grottes, des traillages, des labyrinths, &c. embellir varier le spectacle des jardins. Le Roi, témoin des ces merveilles, lui donna la direction de tous ses parcs. Il embellit par son art, Versailles, Trianon, et il fit à St. Germain cette fameuse terrasse qu'on voit toujours avec une nouvelle admiration. Les jardins de Clagny, de Chantilly, de St. Cloud, de Meudon, de Sceaux, le parterre du Tibre, et les canaux qui ornent ce lieu champêtre a Fontainbleau, sont encore son ouvrage. Il demanda à faire voyage de l'Italie, dans l'espérance d'acquérir de nouvelles connoissances; mais son géniè créateur l'avoit conduit à la perfection. Il ne vit rien de comparable a ce qu'il avoit fait en France."